Ajo
Ambulance,
Inc. serves the communities of Ajo, Why, and Lukeville in Western
Pima
County in southwestern Arizona. It also serves the western
portion
of the Tohono O'odham Nation.

Ajo, Why, & Lukeville are
also served
by the Desert Senita Community Health Center, a primary care
center. It is
open Monday through Friday during normal business hours. Since it
can, by law, offer only limited after-hours care, the sick and injured
often
turn
to
the ambulance service for help at night and on week-ends.

Phoenix
and Tucson
provide the nearest public hospitals, as well as the nearest emergency
rooms and trauma centers. They are 1.5 to 3 hours away by ground,
making
for some long transport times. Critical patients are usually taken to
rendezvous
with a helicopter for transport to a hospital.

Sells Indian Hospital, which
provides primary,
emergency, and in-patient care for members of the Tohono O'odham
Nation,
is 72 miles from Ajo. Most Tohono O'odham patients are initially taken
to this facility.

Where's
Ajo?

Founded in 1991, Ajo
Ambulance
has grown from a tiny service with just one BLS ambulance and four
employees
to a multi-unit service with four stations and employing over thirty
paramedics and basic EMTs in
2009.

The company also operates its own EMT-B training program.

It is a non-profit
corporation.

Its office and main crew
quarters are located
in a wing of the Desert Senita Community Health Center in Ajo. It
has three stations
on the Tohono O'odham Nation: one at Why near the Golden Ha:san Casino,
one at San Simon, and one at the
Santa
Rosa Boarding School.